lUkas Märtens looked at the scoreboard for a long time and got a little angry at the title that had narrowly escaped him, Isabel Gose was very happy, let the water splash and raised her fist to celebrate: double bronze in 30 minutes at the start of the World Cup , The pool swimmer shouted at the German European champions in Doha and caused very different emotions.
“It was very close, they could have done more,” said Märtens, who clocked 3:42.96 minutes in the 400m freestyle final, just 25 hundredths of a second behind new world champion Kim Woo-Min of South Korea: “I love more and more. If there are two tenths left for the gold medal, then I tell myself: somewhere he would have trained one more hour.”
Her colleague from the Magdeburg club, Gose, for her part, was delighted with her first World Cup medal in a German record time. “I'm super relieved. I said it before: I would never have an opportunity like that again,” said the 21-year-old, who beat her old record by 23 hundredths in 4:02.39 minutes over the same distance: “It was very important to me now. take this step forward.” Gose took advantage of the opportunity because Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus (Australia), American star Katie Ledecky and Canadian Summer McIntosh was missing the main favorites.
Two German records
The first two medals of the German team on the tenth day of the competition in Doha were soon followed by the following: because the European short course champion Angelina Köhler swam the fastest with two German records in the 100 m butterfly and became the favorite for the final on Monday (17:09 CET). “I love the pool here, I am perfectly prepared,” said the 23-year-old, who was three tenths below her lead time in the semifinals with 56.11 seconds: “The hard work is little by little paying off.” fruits.”
Also for Märtens, who had already achieved bronze in Fukuoka in 2023 and silver in Budapest in 2022. The 22-year-old has repeatedly had to fight health problems since the start of the season and, among other things, in November he had to miss the German short course championship. “If you take into account how little I was able to train, it is sensational,” said Märtens, adding with a view to the Olympic Games: “Paris is not far away and we are on the right path.”
Gose, who with his first medal also got the ticket to Paris, which Märtens already had, can now also plan the Olympic Games. “I felt great, I swam my race,” said the 21-year-old, who finally realized a long-awaited dream: an awards ceremony at a world championships.
Köhler is also “surely playing with a medal.” The Berliner, who won gold at the European Championships in the 200m butterfly in December, had already improved her German record by 64 hundredths that morning. “She's a world apart,” she said. She stressed that the Olympic classification is as important as the precious metal: “The goal is to get from first to fourth place to get the ticket.”
Breaststroke swimmer Lucas Matzerath also reached the 100m final on Monday (17:02 CET). The Frankfurt runner swam to fifth position in 59.30 seconds. Melvin Imoudu (Potsdam), however, missed the final, placing 14th with a time of 1:00.08 minutes.